Momentum is something that catapult a team or drown them and Northampton found themselves on the latter end of the pendulum during last week's opening round of the District 11 3A wrestling tournament.

The K-Kids fell to rival Easton 36-22 at Nazareth to end their campaign at district duals after one bout.

The Rovers earned vital pins from Ethan DiRenzo (170), John Williams (HWT) and a key decision from Jimmy Saylor (160) to fuel their victory over Northampton.

Easton reversed a 33-30 defeat to Northampton on Jan. 14 with the win, which was a tough pill to swallow for Kids' head coach Seth Lisa.

Saylor kicked things off with a 7-2 decision over Cade Moisey in the opening bout of the match, but Josh Coleman's loss to DiRenzo by fall in 5:27 was a blow to Northampton's chances. The Kids battled back after decisions by Devon Turner (195) and Jason Kocher (220) to make it 12-6 heading into Ty Marinelli's bout with Williams at heavyweight.

Then, the major hammer came when Williams converted a fall in 5:54 to send Easton into a frenzy and shift the momentum squarely on the Rovers shoulders.

"That really killed us," said Lisa of the Coleman and Marinelli bouts. "We were in position to get a major [at 170] and maybe we got a little too aggressive and instead of getting four, you give up six. There's a 10-point swing. "I think we're out-wrestling the heavyweight and we got an under-hook and the corner, thinking we're getting three points and we give up six. That's another nine-point swing. Even though we lost the flip, we still had a good opportunity to come out on top. Everybody showed a lot of heart, but sometimes things just don't go your way."

Easton led 18-6 after heavyweight, but essentially had the points they needed with the matchups to hold on.

Both teams split the final eight bouts of the match, as Dan Moran (113) and Michael Scheetz (126) earned decisions, while Todd Hetrick (132) pinned Nick Nunez in 45 seconds and Mark Schuon (152) scored a 13-5 major decision over Darius Joyce.

Lisa knew things would be tight against Easton a second time around and understood the importance of winning close matches.

"Just like our last dual meet with them, you need to win close matches and get bonus points where you can," he said. "Early on we had an opportunities to get points and it's tough to reverse that momentum. It's hard on the kids, it's hard on the staff and it's hard on the fans, but we battled to the end."

Easton would go on to defeat Freedom 36-30 in the quarterfinals and Blue Mountain 43-24 in the semifinals, before losing to Bethlehem Catholic 49-13 in the finals. The Rovers then lost to Parkland 30-25 in the "true second-place" bout for the final spot to Hershey.